Unlucky Love Charm
by K Double Prime
Summary: What can possibly a love charm do? It just makes the person you like avoid you and charm the person you don't expect! Yes that's right! The love charm's one of a kind!
1. Chapter 1

This story resembles the one I wrote a year ago, The Devil vs. The Prodigy vs. The Rikkai Volleyist. Think of it as a rewrite, but some ideas might change and it may become a different story as a whole and please don't expect the unexpected! XD Well, that didn't make sense… I never make sense. Just kidding, on with the show.

I do not own The Prince of Tennis or any trademarks in connection with it. (This is anime-based.)

* * *

In a busy street where there were a lot of people, a young, brown haired girl ran through the crowd. She was hurrying for what reason unknown and continued to do so until she bumped into a young man who had seaweed looking hair. After she recovered from her fall, she dusted herself all the while being watched by a pair of emerald eyes.

The girl bowed her head and began to speak, "I-I'm so s-sorry. I-" Funny, the young man who she collided with chuckled to her surprise. She lifted her head to look at this person only to see somebody familiar.

The young man scolded her in reply, "Hey, you oughtta' look where you're going, you know!"

"K-Kirihara-san! I'm so sorry, I didn't m-mean to d-do that…" The young girl bent again to utter another of her request for forgiveness, hoping that he would just walk away and let what happened pass.

"I've seen you somewhere…" Kirihara poised to identify her but the girl seemed to be persistent on going some place else, like going home. Nevertheless, he straightened and continued to tease the girl. "What was your name again?" Her head shot up as she realized that this guy wasn't going to let her off so easily. His sharp stare was frightening but the color of his eyes showed the contrary, almost making her forget that he was growing irritated by the moment.

"My name's Ryuzaki Sakuno. I was-" the girl was about to say where they met, but she got cut off.

"Oh! I remember now." he stopped which made Sakuno think that she should be running for her life right now. He then continued, "But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be careful!"

'Oh please save my life good Lord, I don't want to die yet!' Kirihara's face became more frightening for Sakuno and she backed a few steps, knowing what kind of person Kirihara is. Seeing that the girl was trying to escape him, he stepped forward intimidating her more. The young boy smiled, almost appearing like a demon to Sakuno who subsequently bumped another person behind her.

MWMWM

Not only was it getting late, she was having more problems now; she bumped into another person along the way! The fright from being scolded again only met a hand placed on her head, and she was conveniently used as a support. _"Wha-!"_

"You know miss…" the firm hold on her head became a soft pat and the voice made her turn her head. Bright, brilliant, red hair quickly caught her sight as she swung to look at the new comer. "You should be careful when walking around," he continued.

Intense was the blush on her face brought by the mixture of shyness, embarrassment, and anger at herself for bumping into two persons. She raised her head and opened her lips to explain herself but refrained once she noticed that there were more people who encircled her. "R-Rikkai regulars!" was her panicky squeak.

Thoughts of teasing the girl more ran wild in Kirihara's head as he looked at her panic. 'This'll be fun.' He smiled mischievously but something bothered him as he glanced at the red-haired man. Something was surely wrong about his facial expression, according to Kirihara that is. _'Did he make some kind of realization or something? Whatever.'_

"Um, I better get going." Sakuno tried to slip past 'the red guy' but she was not fast enough; he blocked her every effort of running away. Finally after a number of tries she surrendered and it was his victory. She turned around trying to find another way of escaping yet she was faced by the frightening devil.

She sighed at her current situation, contemplating on how she got into this trouble. She gazed at Kirihara's eyes now that she faced him. 'How come he has beautiful eyes?' The thought disappeared fast as she made a plan to escape the both of them, as the other members don't seem to be joining in on bullying her. However, she was unaware that a pair of amethyst eyes continually watched her closely as she fought her way through Kirihara.

The other team members gave way as the vice-captain moved closer to the commotion. His voice seemed to thunder as he spoke authoritatively, "What's going on in here?" and then he eyed the two mischievous boys and shifted his gaze to Sakuno. "You're from Seigaku…" and a word of concern followed his statement, "It's late you should be going home. You are alone after all."

Perplexed was she for the sudden show of kindness, Sakuno nodded and proceeded to go home. She felt her body shudder when she heard Sanada discipline the two who bothered her by giving them 30 laps to run. But a smile found itself on her lips in understanding that his gruff demeanor hid such a kind person.

MWMWM

It was quite a day for Sakuno. All she wanted was to scout her potential school all the while avoiding trouble as much as possible. 'The world really hates me,' she sighed. 'First, this love charm does not work.' She fished out the said object from her pocket and grimaced at it. The charm was a small one, made with red cloth and had a symbol of Love written over it, not to spare those small bells tied to it as well. 'Second, those stupid guys made me late!' Much to her despise, she found herself clutching, almost crushing the charm in her hands.

Another sigh escaped her lips as she felt pity for the charm, being the one on the suffering end. Putting the small thing back into her pocket, she continued walking, succumbing to her thoughts.

ioioio

"_Hey Sakuno! I've got something for you!" Tomo-chan hollered. _

"_This is for me! Don't you like him more than I do?" Sakuno held in her hands a love charm and as Tomoka told her, it was supposed to lure a certain pokerfaced prodigy into Sakuno's arms._

"_You know I like him a lot, but it's not like I like him the way you DO." Tomo said as she peered through the hall window to look for you-know-who on the school grounds._

"_But Tomo-chan, I can't accept this!" Sakuno was shoving the object back into the other girl's hands. "Oh, come on Tomoka, I really can't accept this! I-It's… It's…" stuttering attacked her again._

"_It's what?" _

"_It's," Tomo-chan got impatient so she left Sakuno in a dash. The braided girl tried to catch her but she was too fast._

"_It's just wrong…"_

ioioio

Another exasperated sigh broke away from her lips. "This is Tomo-chan's fault." She looked up at the dark sky with a frown on her brow, remembering that she spoke aloud. 'Lord, why can't I have everything that I wanted?'

She went back to the street that she was in, making sure that she didn't get any funny stares from other people that walked past her. 'I guess we're never meant to be if even this thing doesn't work.' Her frown deepened more which she tried to fight by changing her thoughts. 'Darn charm!'

Ever since she got the charm, nothing has ever happened between her and Ryoma, as in NOTHING!

'Maybe it's not a love charm but an unlucky charm…' she exhaled tiredly.

It's been a number of months from that time Tomo gave her the small harbinger of bad luck, and three years from the first time she knew she had a crush on that special boy. Time sure does fly, and now she's going to be in high school! And she didn't want to stay in that place anymore, too much unwanted memories.

She looked over her shoulder as if she would see the people she encountered a while ago. 'Wait, I haven't gone there yet! Why not give their school a shot?'

Maybe it wasn't that unlucky after all…

MWMWM

A green bubble blew out of his lips, he popped it and the process repeated itself. The bubblegum was already stale, but he didn't mind.

"Chocolate" was all he said amidst the chit-chat of his friends.

"What was that, fatso?" a certain silver-haired friend asked with the usual teasing, but was ignored, unfortunately.

"He said chocolate, Niou." The man who spoke tipped his eyeglasses and repeated, "Chocolate."

"Is there anything new with him saying that, Yagyu-senpai?" Kirihara asked a rhetorical question. He is indeed right; Marui loved sweets and sugary treats. The only day that he would not eat any sweets is when he is 'sick,' or any similar situations.

With everyone not caring about Marui, they did not hear what his lips enunciated that followed the word chocolate.

MWMWM

'Was she that beautiful three, no, two years ago?' another frown scrunched his brow. 'I never noticed…'

* * *

Hey! I'm back with this, uh, uh… whatever it is I hope everyone will enjoy reading it. Criticism is very welcome, opinions, suggestions and likes are also welcome. Please let us help each other to grow and develop useful skills in writing! Just tell me what you think, okay? :D And do tell me if you ever had read a story that is like this, please and thank you!

And before I go, who, do you think, said the last lines? And lastly, thanks to those who liked my stories in this section! Tchüss! _(Bye!)_


	2. Chapter 2

Please don't be angry if I don't update regularly. And from now on, this won't be a mushy, cheesy romance, unlike my other fanfic and this is an independent story now.

I do not own The Prince of Tennis or any trademarks in connection with it. (This is anime-based.)

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Footsteps echoed in the barely populated corridors in the afternoon light.

For those who did not have any club activities, it has been this time of the day when they leisurely waltzed out of the school grounds with their friends to go home.

The steps became louder and heavier as it ascended the stairs, but it stopped for a few seconds and shuffled around the place where it halted.

"Jasmines…?"

Once more, marching feet were heard, continuing its way up to the end of the stairs and then turned. Arriving at a window a voice described,

"There aren't any jasmines here."

And the echoes in the corridors returned, beating rhythmically on the floor. Two other sets of steps joined its cadence, going in and out of tempo as they passed by and slowly faded into silence.

The wind also passed, with it was the scent of flowers, specifically that of jasmines.

ioioioi

The tennis club captain declared the end of practice and all of the members moved according to the task that was given to each one of them. And after that, the members proceeded to go home; all are in groups of their own.

"What do you want to do senpai? We still have a lot of free time…" Kirihara asked as he pulled on his bag's strap that was slung on his shoulder.

A very sharp stare met him head on. "Stop fooling around, that's what" was what Sanada's stare venomously implied. The younger boy stayed silent as he did not want any trouble for himself.

"He's such a killjoy." Niou murmured. And he made sure that he wasn't heard. He looked at Sanada and the said person looked like he didn't hear him, or didn't he?

"Genichirou," A young man who had blue hair began, "the strings of a guitar are broken more easily when they are strung too tight." The lad, who is named Yukimura, said yet the other man just sighed.

Another boy jogged up to them and stated how much better it was if they went home and rested, "Remember that the tournament finals are near. We need to be in our top condition." followed his suggestion. Sanada and Yukimura agreed to this boy they called Yanagi, and so did most of the group members. Thus, it was decided that they go along with Yanagi's arrangement and desert other plans for the day, to the disappointment of three boys.

"Where have you been during Yukimura-senpai's match, Niou-senpai?" one of the three boys spoke.

Though he did not want to answer, he found himself obliging to the younger one's request. "Returned to my classroom," he said uninterestedly.

"For what?" the younger lad followed.

He wanted to answer "None of your business" to the question but doing so would result in him having the need to appease the one who inquired. 'How did I end up babysitting this kid?' he thought. So, he quickly came up of another answer before he made a wrong move, "went back for something I forgot, Kirihara-kun."

Kirihara knew his senior was ticked for he never called him using his name, let alone calling him with that honorific. He looked torn between annoying somebody and staying out of trouble as he shifted his gaze from left to right, poor kid. As it was said before, he did not want trouble he can't handle, hence, he resorted to shutting up for his own sake.

'Good, he shut up.' However, another voice interrupted Niou's peace of mind.

"Chocolate," Marui spoke.

Taking another baby into consideration, he gave up and called for another person in their group. A tall, bald and dark-toned boy approached him and he alleged, "Jackal, take care of that redheaded monkey," Niou pointed at Marui but the sweet-toothed guy was not there anymore. "Where'd he go?" he looked around to spot Marui in the distance, who in turn fidgeted on his place as he searched his pockets.

Marui took his wallet out of his pocket and approached a vending machine. At last, Niou got tired of watching him and let Jackal do the rest.

"The hell I care."

ioioioi

"Hey, did you have permission to leave the courts when you left?" Marui asked as he consumed his fresh-from-the-vending-machine chocolate.

"Yeah, I did, so what?" Niou asked as he gestured his hand to point to the ground along with his eyes, as if he meant that Marui had stepped on something. The victim followed his lead and was dumbstruck. He looked back and saw nothing weird on his tracks. He looked at his soles and found nothing again. But little did Marui know that one smartass was laughing his head off because he looked for something that did not exist at all.

Well, if some of you never knew, it feels really good to annoy somebody once in a while; it kind of takes away the pent up stress. Let Niou teach you the metaphysics of enjoyment in irritating somebody to death.

Anyway, Marui was upset yet he calmed down because of his chocolate in hand. Nothing beats eating that sweet treat, well, there is one thing and that's what made him buy chocolate.

"Are you okay?" Jackal asked his doubles partner. Marui seemed kind of strange as he ate his chocolate. Even though the person Jackal asked answered with an "I'm fine," he knew that this person was in his own world at that time. It's not that he hadn't seen a similar moment, but there's a different element in his aura.

While the Brazilian was busy contemplating at his friend's condition, he did not know that his friend is giving him a weird look because of the way he was staring. "What's wrong with you, Jackal?" he twitched, "If you want to say something, then don't just look at me like that and say whatever the fuck you want to say." After he spoke, he took a bite of the chocolate and made a small expression; the chocolate tasted differently.

"You seem different after you bought that chocolate." Jackal intended it to be serious but the seriousness didn't get to the other side of the conversation. Instead he got a chuckle and a gurgled answer.

"Look who's talking! You're the one who was looking weirdly at me in the first place." Marui perked up as the chocolate tasted the same as when he first bit into it. "Strange," but he was more than happy that it was back to normal.

Out of curiosity, Jackal asked the most important question in his list, "Why did you buy that anyway?" he thought that there is something in the chocolate, it might be expired or worse, it might have poisoned his partner! Okay, so he was being paranoid.

Marui looked at him, trying his best to hide the cat smile behind the chocolate. 'I can't tell him!' But Jackal kept on waiting for his answer. 'I won't tell him!'

"Because I saw someone who reminded me of chocolates," he finally said. _What the! I thought I wouldn't tell him!_

"Would you look at that," Yanagi interjected as he wrote some notes on paper. "That is quite an interesting data there." He took out a small notebook and began to flip its pages. He stopped on a page with the heading "Marui Bunta" and a special note there read "Always confident of his self, boasting about his 'genius' of some sorts." He inserted the paper in which he wrote on a few seconds ago; on it was "however confident you are in yourself, there are still things that you aren't sure of."

"Why do you pop out so conveniently at times like this?" Marui exclaimed with a flushed face. Yanagi raised one of his brows at what was said then shook his head,

"I've been here since we left the courts, Marui. I didn't pop out like a mushroom."

And the chocolate didn't taste good anymore, so Marui threw it into the nearest trash bin.

ioioioi

Kirihara had been thinking about the person that reminded his senior of chocolates. He also remembered that Marui spoke something about chocolates the other day.

"Marui-senpai, could it be the girl we met the other day?" Kirihara was curious if it was her. Sanada knew whom Kirihara was referring to and wanted to verify his thought.

"You mean the Seigaku's coach's granddaughter?" he paused for a second to think of her name, "Ryuzaki Sakuno is her name," he added.

Yukimura was interested with the topic they were talking about and decided to join in. "Do you have a crush on her Marui?" he smiled at the target and made it more uneasy.

"W-What are you talking about!" He glared at Yukimura and then at Kirihara. He glared at everybody else except at Sanada because he didn't want to be slapped left and right (cheek).

"Besides that, Niou saw that girl as well when we were about to leave school," but when Yanagi was about to elaborate it, Marui butted in defensively.

"If it was Niou who saw her then how come you know when the two of you haven't spoken to each other ever since we left the school?" An accusing finger pointed at Niou.

The answer was simple, Yanagi had also noticed Sakuno and aside from that, he was observing Niou and Marui when they caught her in their sights at that time. But he didn't speak further for it would kill the excitement of performing a good experiment. He has to thank Yukimura later for starting his research.

'A very unprecedented reaction indeed…' A stalker's smile lined Yanagi's lips.

ioioioi

"Chocolate, huh?" Niou whispered to himself.

"You said chocolate too." Yagyu approached him in hopes of a good conversation, since the others are squabbling in the background. "Is it a trendy word nowadays?" he laughed.

"What is wrong with the world today?" Niou asked as he looked at Yagyu fix his glasses.

"Nothing is. It's the same as every day of your school life."

Niou knew that this wasn't an ordinary day. First of all, he forgot his Math book on his desk, second, the scent of jasmines, and thirdly, wait, was there a third? Oh yes, the third is that his teammates are arguing about such a petty thing. Isn't it natural for a male to be attracted to a female? What's unnatural is if Marui has a crush on Sanada. That would be a great nightmare, more or less. Anyhow,

"Jasmines too." He said, garnering him a stare from Yagyu. "Chocolate and jasmines…" That was the final straw for the other person in this scene, and he made a realization of how 'not ordinary' the day was.

"Maybe it should have been me who asked what is wrong with the world today." Nevertheless, he wanted a chat so he persisted, "What about jasmines?"

"I smelled jasmines on my way to our classroom," a quick answer from Niou.

Yagyu verified his memories for any signs of jasmines near the vicinity of their building. "I don't remember jasmines growing near there."

"Some girl passed by who likes jasmines, that's all," Niou went on and Yagyu religiously listened. "And she reminds me of chocolates as well." And he thought for a second which worried Yagyu,

'Should I say something now?' Yagyu thought.

A moment of silence between them ensued until another person spoke, "And she reminds me of angels too."

_About two years ago…_

_She stood there in the morning light. The rays were so intense and bright it made her look like an angel bathed with heavenly light._

"Yep, just like an angel." Kirihara spoke with neither a frown nor a smile on his face.

* * *

Darn it! Is there somebody who's getting the same problem as I do? Well, the problem is that every time I try to post six asterisks, or any consecutive punctuations or letters, they don't appear! The only identical/consecutive punctuations that appear are the ellipses (…). This is terrible!

And, please, PLEASE, tell me if the characters are OOC in any way! It's been a year since I last wrote about these guys, yeah… You know what I mean.

Anyway, thanks for tuning in! (And reading my ramblings too!)

Criticism is very welcome, opinions, suggestions and likes are also welcome. Please let us help each other to grow and develop useful skills in writing! Just tell me what you think, okay? :D

The Argent Charlatan, the Red Hype and the Green Mischief

Salut! _(Bye!)_


	3. Chapter 3

Notes: the story is set in high school, and Sakuno was looking for a school to attend. Just to clarify things, Kirihara is in second year and you guys know what the implications are. Anyway, I do not own the Prince of Tennis, please don't sue me. This was done out of fandom.

**The characters may be a bit OOC, please bear with me. Sorry, I don't know the layout of the classrooms in Rikkai.**

**

* * *

**

Sakuno smoothed her uniform as she walked to her designated room. She didn't want to make any scene; neither did she think that anyone would notice her. Thus, she waited outside for the teacher to call her while fidgeting with her tie nervously. A hand tapped her on the shoulder, which prompted her to turn quickly.

"You don't need to be nervous, stupid." He did not even look at her and his hand slipped away as he continued to move forward.

"Kirihara-san," however, her teacher divorced her from her reverie and she obliged by entering the room and introducing herself. She was instructed to take the empty seat at the back of the class where no one sat on either side; all of her classmates faced forward. Nobody even cared to look back at her to introduce their selves and it turned to be a very lonely day…

The bell rang as a signal that it was already lunch and nobody had approached her. This caused her to think if there was anything wrong with her. Sakuno did not want to conclude that it was the whole class that was wrong, so she just sighed and pushed it aside. Stll hopeful, she looked around trying to spot if there was somebody who was planning to befriend her, yet there was none.

Taking out her bento from her bag, she heaved another sigh, having no friends to eat with her was boring but she had no other choice. She opened it and revealed a carefully made lunch inside. It didn't look appealing to her however; she was too lonely to eat. She didn't have anything to do and her food looked as if it wanted to play the staring game so she stared at it longingly, subsequently noticed that her female classmates were screaming in the background, though she did not heed them.

Sakuno continued playing with her food until a hand took the apple slice from the corner of her bento. The rabbit styled apple seemed to magnetize her eyes as it went up and in the end of her eyes' journey she met emerald ones staring at her intently.

"It's Kirihara-sama!"

"Oh my gosh!"

Excitement of the other girls in the room seemed to switch her brain on. It was indeed the Devil of Rikkai Dai, Kirihara Akaya, with his usual smug personality. The transferee didn't know what to verbally communicate with the lad that was eating her apple and was then trying to sit across from her.

"You don't mind me eating your lunch?" Kirihara asked yet Sakuno just gawked, and gawked and stared some more. "What? Is this your first time to see—"

"A seaweed haired guy?" another boy interrupted and by his entry the screeching of the girls got louder and more annoying. The new boy had silver hair and a look of complete loathing as he shifted to Kirihara, saying that he shouldn't have strayed off and not to cause his seniors any trouble.

'So they know each other?' she thought as she picked up her chopsticks to eat her lunch for she finally had the appetite. She watched on and she heard Kirihara mutter "Niou-senpai" and a random curse. She finally remembered who the other boy was.

"Fine, fine, I'm going." Kirihara said as he vacated his seat but before he left the room with his senior, he turned around and called Sakuno, "Hey, you." The girl looked at him with her chopsticks' ends in her mouth. "Yeah, you." He spoke and the girl nodded. "Our club needs a manager, I'll pick you up later to see if you're interested," and with a final wave he disappeared.

That was when she felt heated stares bore holes in her. 'Why me, please tell me Lord God.' She thought miserably whilst ideas related to being a club manager surfaced in her mind.

"They are the death of me…"

The youngest of the regular team waved excitedly at the captain, bearing good news as he approached. Yukimura looked over his shoulder with his usual smile and an unfamiliar face caught his attention.

"Didn't you say we needed a club manager?" Kirihara asked as he and the captain met each other; the junior's noise made the other regulars approach as well.

Yukimura strode toward Sakuno and held out a hand for a shake, a formality that the girl may have been too timid to compel to. "And she is?" The blue-haired boy looked at Kirihara as if it was an order to introduce them to each other.

"Oh, ah, Yukimura-buchou, this is Ryuzaki Sakuno." Kirihara said, motioning from his senior to the girl, "This is Yukimura-buchou as you already know," he said as he shifted, reversed.

"It's nice to meet you." Sakuno responded out of politeness. In actuality, the girl didn't want to be there at all. Seeing as they were "enemies" from a long time ago, and they still were, she felt uneasy as she interacted with them.

It took some time for the others to reach them. The girl bowed once again to the newcomers and they looked at her as if she was an alien who landed on their planet.

"Brat, are you sure you didn't abduct her?" Niou started; his voiced laced with the usual exasperation when it came to the Junior Ace. He eyed the girl from top to toe as she stood with her back to him and saw her fiddle at the sudden attention given to her by the club's team members.

"'Course not!" Kirihara quickly answered with an air of pride, "She didn't have anything to do, so she came along."

_Liar_, Niou thought. He then returned to the thong that was near him and he observed the captain to be quite satisfied at the find but Niou thought that the girl wasn't into the idea. Sanada seemed to have some connection with her for she looked like she was _more comfortable_ around the vice-captain (compared with the others). Jackal somewhat happy, for what reason Niou still had to find out, while Yagyu seemed neutral behind his glasses. Yanagi was also there, doing the same thing Niou was doing.

But something made Niou snigger all of a sudden which made Kirihara to raise a brow at him. His junior was looking at him, eyes pleading for an explanation, but nothing would make The Trickster spill the little secret; it's blackmail material after all…

"Wait, isn't the manager supposed to be a boy…?" she voiced which produced a cough from Yagyu, a maniacal smile from Yanagi and a nape-scratch from Jackal. More confusion flooded her systems; she just can't understand this bunch, or maybe she's not yet used to them? Nevertheless, she stayed because she didn't want them to think that she was rude.

"Do you really want to know why?" his eyes didn't even open up, Yanagi replied.

Another throaty sound emerged from Yagyu. "I think this is not a good idea, though…" the gentleman said. He was right, even Sakuno seconded. "To tell her the reason now, that is," yet his words disappointed the girl for she thought that there was someone within them that actually cared for her opinion.

'Are they always like this? Pushing their wills on somebody?' she thought as she watched the boys around her. Her shoulders dropped a bit but she returned them to normal, but her brows seemed that they couldn't relax. 'I'm in such deep trouble…'

_To be continued~_

What did Niou see? What did he see? Sorry for the shortness but you'll have to read the later chapters if you want to know what he saw. I know it's a little predictable and all (because of my other story, if you had read it that is). Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed reading this attempt at writing a boyish romance story.

Oh, I haven't been relating to Prince of Tennis this past few months and I'm only here to finish this story. Is there someone in the Rikkai team that wanted to quit tennis after middle school? I don't know, obviously.

Please leave a review! Thank you for the effort of reading!


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